IT'S RACE WEEK: 5 storylines we're excited about ahead of the 2026 Belgian Grand Prix

From one historic venue to another, the season has been gathering momentum and means we’re heading into the final double-header of races before the August break. As the gaps at the top of the standings get ever-closer, but questions remain over who will be racing where in 2027, there’s plenty to talk about heading to Spa-Francorchamps.

A title fight that continues to close

Luck has not been on Kimi Antonelli’s side in recent races, with the Italian seeing opportunities to extend his championship lead slip away on a number of occasions.

From an advantage over Lewis Hamilton of 66 points arriving at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix – three races ago – he is now just 25 points clear of team mate George Russell following the last race at Silverstone, with Hamilton only 32 off the lead.

It’s still a full race victory, but it can also be wiped out in one weekend, as the British Grand Prix showed. On that occasion, Antonelli looked set for at least a second place, if not the win, before a wheel shield issue slowed him and ultimately stopped him from scoring.

The pace is not a concern for the championship leader, but after a remarkable run of five straight victories – his first five wins in F1 – he has now suffered reliability problems in two of the last three races.

With Ferrari showing the performance level required to put pressure on Mercedes in both Barcelona and Silverstone, and Red Bull the same in Austria, Toto Wolff’s team cannot afford to make too many concessions from a pace perspective in order to reduce the risk of retirements.

Verstappen after a reset

The positivity that was surrounding Max Verstappen and Red Bull’s performance level after the Austrian Grand Prix disappeared quickly at the next race in Great Britain, as the Dutchman slid off at high speed when fighting for the podium.

That retirement was attributed to a lack of downforce after the rear wing’s Straight Mode mechanism was closed, with a similar problem suggested when Verstappen crashed in Q3 at the Red Bull Ring.

Following the race, Verstappen himself said he felt like he needed a few days “to reset and try again”, having been frustrated by the incident, but also faced a number of questions about his future plans.

The four-time World Champion has been linked with a move to McLaren, but would not be drawn on what his thought process is relating to next year. The speculation led Mark Webber to refute any notion that Oscar Piastri was looking for a move as a result, saying: “McLaren have repeatedly said they want him for the long term and Oscar is focused on that.”

Until Verstappen confirms his plans for 2027, though, he’s likely to remain at the centre of the rumour mill.

Closer to 2027 driver decisions

Verstappen is not the only driver who could theoretically be on the move next year, though, with a number of teams currently with vacancies or options that are yet to be activated.

The uncertainty surrounding Verstappen plays a big role in there being no confirmed movement yet, because teams and drivers are waiting to see where there might be openings. The front-running seats tend to be the most coveted, and so any chance that one might become available usually has a knock-on impact on the drivers that are currently less competitive.

But if they already have them identified, then teams don’t want to miss out on their preferred line-ups, either, and will try their best to lock them in at the earliest opportunity.

With the summer break a time when drivers often prefer to know their plans for the following season, the final pair of races in Belgium and Hungary could well see an acceleration in any negotiations within the paddock.

An iconic venue

A number of tracks tend to get regular mentions when drivers are ranking their favourite circuits to race on and, like Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps is certainly one of those.

Unlike Silverstone, there are significant elevation changes around the lap, with the steep drop down from La Source followed by a notable compression as the cars then start to climb up even more sharply through Eau Rouge and Raidillon.

There’s also Pouhon, where cars are on the limits of grip sweeping downhill in the middle sector, and the high-speed run towards the final chicane that can also allow drivers to set up an overtaking move into the heavy braking zone.

As with all of the circuits this season, it remains to be seen if there are any areas where the challenge may have changed as a result of the latest regulations, but Silverstone certainly proved to be an exciting test throughout both Qualifying and race sessions last time out, and Spa-Francorchamps has often had the potential for enthralling battles on track.

A first wet session of 2026?

Something else Spa-Francorchamps has the potential for – that can also have a significant impact on the racing – is wet weather.

The track is located in the Ardennes, deep in the Belgian forest, and has seen rain at some stage during the race weekend on multiple occasions. Given the track length is over seven kilometres (or 4.3 miles), then there can also be specific parts of the circuit that get wet while other sectors remain dry.

The topic of wet running has been a recurring one during this season so far, mainly because we have not seen a collective session in the rain with these cars. Some teams completed wet running during the pre-season shakedown in Barcelona, while others have carried out Pirelli tyre testing on wets, but the majority have yet to experience a 2026 chassis and tyres when it rains.

That means it will be a steep learning curve for the grid if we do get any wet weather during the race weekend. Given previous examples of racing at Spa, you can never really rule it out even if the forecast is for bright sunshine, but at the time of writing there certainly looks to be a risk on all three days.